The National tribune., 1887-11-24

spouse TO the subject assigned him, The Nolun-
teer, being part of a lecture on "Reminiscences
of the War which he has promised for several
soldier CamPfres the coming season.
Say, comrades Of the old war days long gone,
Do you remember. while yet fresh from home,
When in the night the campfire light was low,
And dreams of home and peace would come and
Do you remember how you cursed and raved,
When on the 'broidered shit your sweetheart
gave
You caught in active act, with open nav,
The very first grayback you ever sawf
Comrades an age ii seems has passed away
Since on the fields of war met the gray
The plOw, the harrow, and Gods grasses green
Have blotted fort and earthwork from the seensi
The hymns Of peace and Joy ringing loud
Throughout the land where once hung pail and
shroud,
And honor sweet uplits her snowy hand
And beekons onward to a fiirer land!
And yet while memories of the past come back
feel the graybaek crawling up my back!
see the mountainous Of Tennessee;
breathe the ozone air at reveillei
When under Burnside, back in sixty-three,
We waded rivers, climbed the Cumberland;
And wrested Knoxville from a hostile bandl
The mountan-sides are heclSed with tieeey cloud,
That hang upon the SUBMITS like shrOud;
The trees are bright in scarlet, gold and green,
Hinged with the Autumn frosts in brilliant sheeni
Here men with boards white as the mountain
snow.
And stalwart maidens In their froc<s of tow,
Came forth to greet us in their royal right,
And kiss the stars upon our banner bright
And while we lay upon that mountain-side
And saw the empire of our hopes and pride,
I'd given all had that very minute
For one boiled shirt without gray back In itl
see old Kenesaw turn heavenward now,
With bigmouthed cannon on her serried browt
/ hear the muskets rattle down the slopes.
/ hear great thunders answering in the eOpsel
i see grim death stalk in the valley, where
The sweet magnolia perfumes all the air;
I see the shouting men in staggering lines
Where grape in swaths sweeps through the shat
tered pineSt
I see great gaps made by the fearful she'll
Our flag go down. hear the rebel yell
And yet beneath each soldiers blouse Of blue,
Ten thousand graybaeks charge, and claw, and
chew
The battles earthquake shocks they needed noti
Awed by no shrieSing shell or blistering shot;
While roaring cyclones breathed their awful power
| The grayback paused not for single hourl
| And when at length the hot June days had passed
| And proud Atlanta fell to us at last,
/ And we looked back across n hundred days
/ of skirmish, fight, and seOrch and battle blaze!
/ While all the North were booming US with praise
/ When sherman issued orders for a rest
/ That every soldier in new blue be- dressed;
/ When blOuses torn and pants without a seat,
And shirts, with sixty gray backs IN each pleat,
i Were made into "a bOnfre-far from sweet
| 1t took just four days of that Georgia
/ To hatch a new crop, hercer than the old onei
| And now lie beneath the August night
| While dying embers glow Of campfire lightl
| Wink calmly DER the sleeping field Of Mars
i There is cover save the steeiy sky;
| There is music but the nighthawk 3 cryl
/ Yet. a. 4 gaze into the mellow moon.
I L feel the gTayback in my pantaloon
l feel him IN my shirt, upon my neck
/ His gripping grip upon my starbOard deckl
/ / cannot sleep, 4 cannot rest nj ali,
i For his omniyerou5 bite and onlinOus erawlt
/ And now at last we tramp the old North State,
| We stand crowned heroes at the golden gate
OF glorious peace Farewell 10 war alarms!
/ The Blue confronts the Gray with grounded arms
\ The Stars and Bars go down. and never more
/ In this fair land, on hilltop, sea or shore
/ Will that flag wave again! And then and there
/ Grant swung his victor eagles bright with flame,
| Into the grateful air of peaee.-and fame
/ Wreathed laurels green with his immortal namel
Two armies lay asIeep-the Blue, the Gray;
| And side by side! Sweet peace had come to stay
| He knew no North, no South, no peaceful song!
| And by the frefiy's fash the last tattoo,
/ He cIawed and chawed, the same he used to dol
| The same among the Gray as in the Bluel
/ Only for every one of Blue, tits true,
The PROSTATE JOhnnies had q pair-or twol
\ Oh cruel bloodful chum Of awful war,
/ OF soldier ills the most pestferOus, far;
/ Oh crawling, creeping, elawing, biting pest,
/ OF camp and bivouac the bane Of rest!
4 On, nasty gnat of mlliion-hatehing powerl
I Born but to crawl and bite through every hour
/ of tired soldiers life IL cannot be
| That shall ever live too long to forget theel
| Why were ys made with that terrific maws
| Why were We born with that Internal eawe
Why were ye sent a soldiers life To mar
In the damp night bivouacs of cruel war;
To sit on GOry's brow and leave a scar;
To creep and crawl and suck heroic blood
And die between two thumb nails devilish thud